Nakamura states a bold argument on page 97, stating the whites "enjoy" the privilege of using various means of technology, communicating with computers and others. She put white people as the lead, while submitting blacks as always taking second. According to Nakamura, black people are always either a whitness or simply support to the white man. She goes about supporting her argument by showing the white woman in a white room, resembling "white power". I think Nakamura is trying to point out the little details-which race is doing what, and there seems to be a common theme in movies as far as rolls a white or black or asian person is subjected to.
When I started to think about it, it was hard to pinpoint a movie that degrades a race as inferior to whites, there are a lot of movies that jump to mind where this isn't the case. One movie, or series, that mite suffice as supporting Nakamura would be the Bourne Identity, and the others. In these movies Matt Damon (a white guy) is the main character who dominates, no one can take him down-he is smarter than everyone else, even other white people...go figure. Then what does that say about the black man?
I believe there is a good answer for why different races are defaulted to certain tasks...but that's for another time.
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I read several articles on black history in film and television in working on this assignment. I found if one Google’s the subject, there is an overwhelming history of deficiency of the black representation and identity as an equal culture in film. It is atrocious that the depiction continues on through every medium today. Race seems to be taught no matter the medium. It is an interesting subject and Nakamura has some good arguments. Your thoughts were interesting.
ReplyDeleteJackie Chan dominates in his movies and he has been a hit in the US. But he's still a man, versus a woman. I think Kate Beckinsale can dominate too. But she's white (British). Still, she' wears all black in her movies.
ReplyDeleteI might just be being naive again, but I have a habit of wanting to take things for face value. In my mind, sometimes a black person or a white person is in a role just because they are good for the part. It has been a long time since I have seen the Bourne films, but I can't remember the main character being a white guy really meaning anything. As far as details go, it was also brought up in class that some people in the Matrix always wore white, or really slick black. I think that a lot of this just has to do with styling, and what looks "cool." When the fishbowl was taken in the direction of ipods and what color they are, I had to think about mine and why I chose it. Someone said that people are choosing either white or black ipods, and that black is the new cool thing to be. My ipod is blue. Granted, I didn't pick it out, but does this mean I think it would be cool to be one of the humanoids from Avatar? Sorry, I get a little off topic sometimes.
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